Manufacture of knitted hosiery



Nov. 29, 1949 M. C. MILLER MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY 18 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 9, 1945 ATTORNEY Nov. 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER 2,489,658

MANUFACTURE OF KNITT-ED HOSIERY 4 Filed July 9, 1945 i8 sheets-sheet 2 Nov.- 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER 2,489,558

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ATT RNEY Nov. 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER 2,489,653

MANUFACTURE oF KNITTED HosIERY Filed July 9, 1945 18 Sheets-*Sheet 5 O IN V EN TOR.

A TTORNEY Nov. 29, 1949 M. C. MILLER 2,489,658

MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY Filed `July 9, 1945 18 shee'ts-sheet 7 INVENTOR Way/.

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ATTORNEY M. C. MILLER MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY Nov. 29, 1949 18 Sheets-Sheet ll Filed July 9, 1945 INVENTO 7739/ :TORNEY Nov. 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER 2,489,658

MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY I 18 Sheets-Sheet l2 Filed July 9, 1945 FEA/5- w u BY W F 55.47 TTORNEY Nov. 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY Filed July 9, 1945 i BY 18 Sheets-Sheet 13 INVENTOR.

Nov. 29, 1949 j M. c. MILLER 2,489,658

MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY l l Filed July 9, 1 945 18 Sheets-Sheet 14 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEY Nov.` 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER 2,459,658

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Nov. 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER MANUFAGTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY Filed July 9, 1945l /05 /50 /az u /08 18 Sheets-Sheet 17 FTE'. 55

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ATTORNEY Nov. 29, 1949 M. c. MILLER 2,489,658

MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY Filed July 9, 1945 18 Sheets-Sheet 18 I fr@ IFE@ A TTORNEY Patented Nov. 29, 1949 MANUFACTURE OF KNITTED HOSIERY Max C. Miller, Cumberland, R. I.; Ida L. Miller executrix of said Max Curtis Miller, deceased Application July 9, 1945, Serial No. 603,839V2 83 Claims.

The present invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of hosiery, and more particularly to a full-fashioned hosiery blank having a novel and improved heel structure, and to a novel method and machine for knitting the same.

Many efforts have been made to produce a fashioned knitted hosiery blank of improved construction to cause the stocking and more particularly the ankle, heel and instep portions to fit more perfectly the human foot, which could be knitted on available flat full-fashioned type hosiery machines, and which would eliminate certain objectional features of the standard type fullfashioned hosiery blank with square heel sections and ravel end course to be joined together by looping to close the heel. The fashioned hosiery blank of the present invention is knitted with true heels, that is, heels which are formed while substantially no knitting is taking place over the instep of the fabric. While heel structures and methods have been devised for knitting combination foot and leg hosiery blanks having true heels which attempt to achieve to a greater or less extent the precise shape and style of the so-called full-fashioned stocking, such attempts have thus far failed to produce a hosiery blank which is simple in construction or of the proper shape, or which it is practical to produce on existing machines without adding prohibitively to the complication and cost thereof. While fullfashioned hosiery machines have been manufactured which are adapted for knitting combination foot and leg stocking blanks of the fullfashioned type, such machines are complicated and costly, and have had only limited acceptance. Any general shift by the industry to the single machine system of knitting womens full-fashioned hosiery has further been obstructedby the reluctance or inability of mill owners generally to discard existing machines which are in the very large majorty of the so-called legger type for knitting the leg and heel portions of the conventional full-fashioned blank, which is then transferred to a footer for the knitting of the foot and toe.

It is one of the principal objects of the present invention to provide an improved 'full-fashioned hosiery blank and the method of knitting the same, which is readily adapted to be carried out upon the basic legger type of full-fashioned hosiery machine most generally employed in the art.

It is another object of the invention to provide a full-fashioned hosiery blank having a novel and improved heel knitted therein which is shaped and integrated with the leg and foot in such a manner as to provide a finished stocking of accurate t, neat appearance and exceptional strength and durability.

It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel and improved combination full-fashioned foot and leg hosiery blank having the heel portion thereof knitted with a series of gores so located in the fabric and having outwardly widened fabric courses formed therein to provide a heel having the preferred relative dimensions of width and length, and with the leg heel and foot portions joined together by continuous connected knitting of the selvage edges, so that any looping, joining or transfer operations other than the normal seaming operation and toe loop operation for closing the blank are wholly eliminated.

It is another object of the invention to provide a novel and improved method of knitting a heel and foot, or combination foot and leg hosiery blank having a shaped heel in accordance with the invention, and further it is an object of the invention to provide a method of knitting a hosiery blank of this description which is readily practiced upon a conventional single or multiple section Cotton type machine such as those normally employed for the knitting of the leg portion of a full-fashioned hosiery blank with a minimum of alteration or change.

It is a further object of the invention to provide in a Cotton type full-fashioned hosiery machine of this general description, novel features and improvements of construction and mode of operation which will adapt the machine for knitting a hosiery blank in accordance with the steps of the novel method herein described, the foot and leg hosiery blank having the shaped heel herinafter described in accordance with the invention.

In carrying out the invention, an improved fabric blank is provided which comprises with the ankle and foot sections, left and right hand heel areas formed of a plurality of inwardly tapered gores which are so constructed and so arranged with relation one to another as to provide a heel fabric having the desired relative dimensions of length and width With the lower end thereof rounded, and with the terminal wale loops of the heel and instep fabrics connected by continued knitting to the foot portion of the blank so that an unbroken selvage edge of the fabric is maintained extending from the leg, around the heel and along the foot section of the blank.

Features of applicants improved heel structure 3 include specifically the construction and arrangement of the heel gores to produce the desired shape and style of heel fabric, the disposition of the gores with respect to one another so that the apex of each successively knitted gore originates in the terminal loop of a different wale of the fabric, the construction of the inner or suture edges of the several gores including the arrangement of the gores so that each gore is formed with a long knitted course connecting the terminal Wale loops of the last short course, and the terminal Wale loops left during the knitting of the successively shorter courses of the gore, the use of widened courses which are employed at intervals in the knitting of the heel gores to extend outwardly the selvage edgelof the heel, the specific arrangement of the loops forming the widened selvage edges to provide a tight, oleanly formed selvage edge, and the construction and arrangement of the left hand gores with relation to the right hand gores of the heel fabric.

Another feature of the invention consists in the provision of a combination full-fashioned type stocking blank which consists of applicants improved heel structure in combination with the foot and' leg portions of the blank, in which the heel and foot portions areY knitted as a continuationofv the leg knitted with a continuous unbroken selvage edge of the fabric extending the entire lengthof they leg, heel and foot, and in which theinitial width of footr fabric produced by knitting the terminal wale loops of the heel and instep portionsis reduced by a substantial number of foot narrowings, and in which the toe is produced by fur-ther fabric narrowing operations.

In accordance with the preferred form of the invention, a heel structure is provided which comprises a series of from two to four inwardly tapered knitted heel gores of novel construction which are knitted on groups ofheel needles at opposite ends of the needle series while knitting is suspended on the intermediate instep needles on which are supported the terminal wale instep loops.

In this preferred formof4 theinvention, the heel gores.l are formed with courses starting with a maximum length in theneighborhood of fty to sixty needle wales, which length is sufficient to produce a first course of heel fabric of the required width, and is withinithe capacity of a narrowing: point unit of about sixty points which is the longest such unit. that can be accommodated on astandardmultiple section legger type hosiery machine. v The successively knitted courses of the heel gore are shortenedy progressively outwardly one needle at a time by the laying of yarn to more outwardlyY disposed needles only in successive courses until in the neighborhood of forty-five heel needles have been addedto the inactive series at each end of the instep group. Further in accordance wit-hV the preferred form of the invention, the, rst longfcourseV of the next or second gore is formed with its; most inward loop placed from 6 to'needleindexes outwardly from the innermost loop of the longest course of the preceding gore, and the iirstA long course of the next succeedingor third gore is located with its most inward loopV placed again 6 to 8 needie indexes outwardly from the innermost loop of the preceding gore, During the knitting of the heel courses, the heel yarns arefed outwardly to additional needles in selected courses to form suc cessive two needle Widenings. In the example above stated, and as shown in Fig. 45 of the drawings, four such selvage needle widenings will serve to maintain a continuous selvage edge of the fabric from the first to the second and then to the third gore located outwardly with respect to one another as above set forth.

Steps of applicants novel method of knitting to produce a hosiery blank with a shaped heel in accordance with the invention, include knitting series of heel courses upon selected variable groups of needles without resort to needle narrowing or similar loop transfer operations while holding terminal Wale loops of intervening instep and heel fabric wales with respect to which no knitting has taken place, and in such manner knitting at each side of the fabric a heel gore with a series of successively shorter courses, thereafter knitting one or more additional heel gores thereto arranged so that the long Course forming one side of each gore in the series is employed to connect the terminal loops of heel wales left by the successively shorter courses of the next adjacent gore, and the inner apexes of the several succeeding gores are connected with terminall loops of diiferent wales of the fabric, and at intervals during the knitting of said heel courses adding loops outwardly in selected courses in order to produce the requiredwidth and length of heel fabric with a rounded heel and with a continuous selvage edge of said fabric extending from the leg entirely around the heel and thenc along the foot portion of the blank, and thereafter knitting a course connecting all of the terminal wale loops of the fabric including the terminal wale loops of the instep andV adjacent heel fabric wales with respect to which no knitting has been taking place and the loops of the previous course of knitting to form the first course of the foot portion of the blank.

Other steps and details of the novel method herein disclosed including alternative ways of performing certain steps of the method, will be more fully'set forth in the following detailed description of the method. Features and steps of applicants novel method which relate more specifically to the-method of manipulation operation of a flatA full-fashioned type hosiery machine for the knitting of the hosiery blank of the present invention thereon, will be more fully set forthv in connection with the following description ofsuch a machine in which are embodied the several novel features of construction and operation in. accordance with the invention.

The machine herein disclosed in the drawings as embodying thev several features of the invention is a Ll-gauge multiple section full-fashioned Cotton type hosiery machine which is provided with the usual mechanisms, attachments and controlA devices normally provided in a machine of this general type adapted for knitting the leg and heel portions of a full-fashioned hosiery blank. In accordance with the present invention, certain alterations and'improvements have been made in sucha machine to permit a combination foot and leg hosiery blank with the novel shaped knitted' heel herein described to be produced thereon. It will be understood that the several featuresy of the invention are not limited in their application to the particular machine organization shown, and that these features may be employed to adapt multiple section machines other than leggersv and single section nfiachinel of the so-called Cotton type for the knitting of the improved hosiery blank of the present inventioninaccordancewith the method herein-illustrated... 

